Final Project Proposal/Essay by Tristan Murdoch

I would like to begin by mentioning that although I have researched and brainstormed with my partner, Daniel, we have not discussed any specifics like naming or the exact design. We may initially have very different ideas of how this project will turn out, so the following project proposal is definitely subject to adjustments after we consult on exactly how to begin creating our project. 

The working title I have devised for our project is the “Simplinstrument.” Not because it is an extremely simple instrument to play—it may be quite difficult—but because it requires no prior knowledge of music or experience in playing instruments. Arguably the biggest reason people do not want to learn an instrument is because of the challenge of learning to read sheet music, fingerings, or even breath control. Our Simplinstrument removes those aspects of music and brings forth a host of new, interesting ways to create sound and music. 

The initial research I did for the final actually did not end up contributing very heavily to this project idea. After seeing Daniel’s idea, however, I started looking into theremins, which are types of instruments that fit our project. A theremin measures the distance of the user’s hands from certain sensors and transfers it into frequency and amplitude that affect the pitch and volume of a sound. We hope to keep the base of Theremin in mind, but perhaps change the inputs to make the instrument more interesting and original. In this way, both users who have a background in music and those who do not can alike experience a new method of music creation.

To begin I hope to make the instrument look like some notion of what most people would perceive to be an instrument. The most likely option, for two important reasons, is something like a recorder. Firstly, most users can identify with a recorder as it is a very common instrument used to teach music in elementary and middle school. Secondly, the top has a mouthpiece, which we hope to incorporate. Much like the bagpipes, however, the strength and precision of the airflow are irrelevant; rather, there will be a sensor that will detect a minimum amount of pressure that will trigger a buzzer (or other sound-emitter).  Another option for the mouthpiece, which I prefer, is to actually map the amount of pressure from the sensor and translate that to the amplitude, which would be easier for users to handle, albeit less interesting. Then, we have many sensors to choose from to alter the frequency (and potentially amplitude, depending on the nature of the mouthpiece) of the sound waves. What I find to be the most alluring is a slide mechanism along the shaft of the instrument that as moved with one hand increases or decreases the pitch of the sound. Daniel seems to be more attracted to the idea of using ultrasonic sensors, much like the Theremin, to change the pitch. Lastly, we will use processing to display which note is being played, as well as the current volume. If the coding proves not too difficult, I would like to use sound files to play the notes instead of a buzzer. The sound quality would be much better, and the project would be more interactive (processing to Arduino as well as Arduino to processing). As far as time management, I hope to work with Daniel next week to complete the code and planning for the building, as well as buy/print/find any materials not immediately at hand. After that is complete, we will begin as early as possible actually wiring and building the Simplinstrument. We have decided that if we cannot complete the mouthpiece (one of the more troublesome parts of the projects) by May 5th, we will have to change our project, or at least make significant alterations. We struggled to complete the midterm project on time, and will not make the same mistake this time. We will try and be done two or three days before the deadline in order to troubleshoot problems and make last-minute tweaks and changes.

As mentioned earlier, the direction of the project itself has not derived from the research of my blog post projects. I looked into the components of a theremin and similar instruments over the past few days and we got inspired to make an even stranger instrument. I got the slide idea from the Haken-Continuum, an instrument that creates pitch and timbre values based on the location of the fingers along the slide surface. That being said, there are a variety of options for inputs. As for my definition of interaction, I believe this project fits very nicely with it. I included in my last definition the idea of different levels of interaction. In this case, the sound/music will play either way as long as the user blows, and the project becomes more interactive as the user learns and gets used to how to control the sound. I also included the idea that the agents, in a perfect interactive environment, would change their responses to better complete the task of the interaction. In this instance, the user’s actions and movements will change as they hear what sound they are producing, which will (hopefully) lead to a better sense of how to use the instrument to make the desired melodies. As mentioned earlier, this is a version of an instrument that already exists, but our modifications change (for the better, in my opinion) the way it is used to create a more dynamic instrument.  It should be noted that this project/ musical instrument is not for those looking to learn about music or find a loophole in modern music methodology. Our target audience, rather, is people who want a different or new experience with music. Our project invites anyone to share a musical experience different from one the user may have experienced in the past. It should be accessible for anyone and easy to learn because of its intuitive design. If this project is successful, it may well invite others to replace our methods of changing the amplitude, frequency, or even modulation with other interesting sensors/methods. 

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